with so much of the fight over that looming fiscal cliff focusing on tax rates we want to look at that claim, that claim specific to spending to see how it stands up with the facts. doug mckelway is live in washington with more on this story. >> reporter: good morning, jenna. the republicans claim democrats are solely focused on raising tax rates not spending cuts. democrats counter what we heard from nancy pelosi. democrats agreed to over a trillion dollars in cuts as part of the budget control act in 2011. indeed hear is the document. letter from cbo to spiker boehner laying out $915 billion in cuts between 2012 and to 21. the brookings institution it is a fact, she says pelosi was right. listen up. >> there are two different conversation going on about these numbers. one is about the cuts that are already embedded in law which is evidently what nancy pelosi was talking about and they are absolutely embedded in law and there is no question about them. >> reporter: but not so fast. keep in mind that these numbers were derived from baseline budgeting that is a washington gimmick that n